


A Friendly Game

by Murasaki99



Category: The Rat Patrol
Genre: Drinking Games, Frenemies, Gen, Sandstorm - Freeform, playing cards and drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27203038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murasaki99/pseuds/Murasaki99
Summary: Captain Hans Dietrich and Sergeant Sam Troy are stuck in a desert town during a terrific sandstorm.  Rather than have a gunfight, they decide to pass the time playing a drinking game.  Last man standing wins, kind'a like Legolas and Gimli inThe Two Towers.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18





	A Friendly Game

**Author's Note:**

> This little shortfic was inspired by our comment thread under   
> The Raid Without Dietrich, a story by Dracsmith, which I highly recommend. :)

Hauptmann Hans Dietrich firmly placed his empty shot glass face-down on the table next to the collection of “dead soldiers” amassed between himself and Sergeant Sam Troy, and looked carefully at the cards in his hand. He could still read them and decipher the symbols correctly, which meant the game was not yet over. Outside, the winds howled like the demons of hell, the furious sandstorm making travel impossible. His ‘brief trip’ to the town had turned into an hours-long delay, made even more interesting by discovering the Sergeant, leader of his persistent enemies, the Rat Patrol, likewise stuck in town. 

After shouting out a hasty truce over the sandblasting winds, the two of them had finally taken refuge in the inn, a heavy adobe building that had weathered many years of such storms. At first he hadn’t been sure they would survive sharing the inn. After some cautious negotiations, they had settled on passing the time waiting for the storm to abate by playing cards and having a shot of whiskey after each hand. That had been some hours, and many rounds of poker, later. 

Placing his cards on the table, he flexed his hands.

“ _Ach_ , my fingers feel a little numb,” he muttered.

Troy grinned widely. 

“Ha! Can't hold your...” The American sat up very straight, and then slowly collapsed over the table, the cards in his hand raining onto the floor in a gentle cascade.

Dietrich looked at his fallen foe with an expression that slowly changed from surprise to an odd fondness. 

“Heh.”

A quick check found the Sergeant unconscious, but nothing worse. Finding a bit of paper, he penned a quick note and tucked it into Troy’s shirt pocket. Gesturing the innkeeper over, he arranged for Troy to be placed in a room, and settled their combined tab, much to the man’s joy. Two hours later the winds had calmed to a simple storm, minus the tons of sand, and he felt steady enough to hazard the journey back to his command. Cheerfully whistling _Lili Marleen_ , he drove away into the desert night.

The following morning, along with a murderous hangover, Troy found the note. 

_Congratulations Sergeant, you are the first person to sit through such a contest with me since my years at university. If it is any consolation, you outlasted all my classmates. – D._

_PS: You owe me a bottle of Kentucky Bourbon, I believe._

“Dietrich!” Troy groaned and clutched his head. After some reflection he decided he didn’t need to tell Moffitt, Hitch, or Tully that he’d lost a round of that most American of ‘sports’, heavy drinking, to the German captain.

_Moffitt figures we owe the Captain some champagne for getting rid of that crazy SS officer, but maybe we better find him something stronger, like some of Tully’s family moonshine_. 

**Author's Note:**

> No one told Troy that Captain Dietrich has an American cousin named Marian Ravenwood. If you haven't seen her epic drinking game, watch _Raiders of the Lost Ark_
> 
> Also Troy thinks drinking is an "American" sport, but really, it's pretty universal.


End file.
